Adelaide Guitar Festival Hits the Right Note

Hitting the right note with audiences, Adelaide Festival Centre’s Adelaide Guitar Festival’s metro performances came to a close over the weekend with a packed Festival Theatre hosting three performances of The Princess Bride in Concert, but the music is set to continue with Adelaide Guitar Festival’s regional tour On the Road program setting off in November.

To our UNESCO City of Music, Adelaide Guitar Festival welcomed 14 international artists, 46 interstate artists and proudly worked with 194 South Australian artists. During Adelaide Guitar Festival the emotive power of the guitar was celebrated with genres on show including jazz, rock, blues & roots, classical, country and flamenco.

Standing ovations, highlights and sell-out shows included Spanish guitar legend Paco Peña with Requiem for the Earth, Travel Guide a Global Gathering which featured Grigoryan Brothers, Chrystian Dozza and Xuefei Yang. The Rolling Stones Review featuring Tex Perkins, Adalita, Sarah McLeod and Steve Kilbey, Jeff Lang:

More Life, Blak Country curated by Nancy Bates, Antoine Boyer and Yeore Kim from France, Carl Orr’s London Underground, Dusty Lee Stephensen’s Dustyn, Spain’s Rafael Montilla, The Princess Bride in Concert and more.

Adelaide Guitar Festival kicked off in July with the ever-popular weeklong Winter School program and the concert, Winter Warm Up which was held to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Adelaide Guitar Festival Orchestra on July 19.

On Sunday September 15, performers from around the globe came together for the Adelaide International Classical Guitar Competition final. Young Taek Jo from South Korea won, taking home $10,000, a highly prized Jim Redgate guitar worth $23,000 and will have the opportunity to perform at a future Adelaide Guitar Festival. Sotiris Anathasiou from Greece and Nene Yokomura from Japan took out second and third prize respectively.

Adelaide Guitar Festival’s community program Resonance saw some of South Australia’s brightest musicians perform at care facilities, community centres, pre-schools and wellbeing services across Adelaide including Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

Audiences were able to experience Adelaide Guitar Festival in intimate performances by musicians including Kelly Menhennett, Slava Grigoryan, Alana Jagt, Cal Williams Jr, Alain Valodze, Mike Bevan, Caleb Lavery-Brook, Anya Anastasia and Dylan Woolcock.

Also reaching beyond the stages of Adelaide Festival Centre, Guitars in Bars returned in 2024 to pay homage to some of the venues around Adelaide who richly support exceptional musicians year-round.

While Adelaide Guitar Festival’s regional program On the Road is set to return in November, showcasing the very best guitarists to South Australia’s vibrant regional communities via free events and is this year travelling to Kangaroo Island.

Adelaide Guitar Festival Artistic Director Slava Grigoryan:

My thanks to our audiences, artists, and theteam at Adelaide Festival Centre for making the 2024 Adelaide Guitar Festival such a great success.

Adelaide Guitar Festival 2024 continues with On the Road heading out to Kangaroo Island in November and I look forward to welcoming everyone back in 2025.

Adelaide Festival Centre CEO & Artistic Director Douglas Gautier AM:

Congratulations to Slava Grigoryan and the Adelaide Festival Centre team for delivering a world class program of music and events celebrating the guitar, here in South Australia.

We were delighted to see so many guitar fans of all ages experiencing the power of guitar music, and we look forward to further engaging audiences beyond Adelaide Festival Centre through Adelaide Guitar Festival’s community programs.